Obama goes to war

I was going to write this morning about Obama’s speech in the White House this past Monday while the bodies were still being identified over at the Navy Shipyard. Obama’s speech was geared to the fifth anniversary of the Lehman bankruptcy. Obama touts the success of the economic recovery he claims to have engineered and excoriates the Republican opponents of his policies. The White House has posted the text of Obama’s remarks here and, as always, I encourage readers to check them out.

Bill Kristol comments on Obama’s speech in an interview with Michael Graham posted here. Chris Stirewalt comments here. But the Wall Street Journal improves on the thoughts at the back of my mind this morning in the editorial “Obama goes to war.” The Journal comments:

President Obama likes to invoke his predecessors in the Oval Office, as all Presidents do, but in one sense he is unlike the others: Presidents traditionally try to reach a rough domestic consensus if they are faced with going to war abroad. Mr. Obama wants to smooth everything over abroad so he can get back to his favorite pursuit of declaring war at home.

At least that’s how it’s gone the last week, as Mr. Obama all but wrapped up that ghastly business in Syria and turned his attention to the real enemy—Republicans. Backed by the good offices of Vladimir Putin and the assurances of Bashar Assad, United Nations inspectors will now remove Syria’s chemical weapons from the battlefield. Congress doesn’t even have to vote on it, and the American people can forget the recent unpleasantness. Peace in our time.

Which means it’s now safe for Mr. Obama to begin the war he really wants to fight. The President spoke Monday afternoon at the White House in remarks pegged to the fifth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the financial panic of 2008. But the financial crisis was merely an excuse for Mr. Obama’s real purpose, which was to demand unconditional surrender from his domestic opposition.

Mr. Obama assailed Republicans for an “ideological agenda” that he called “the height of irresponsibility.” Among other crimes against humanity, he said the GOP refuses to abandon the budget restraint of the sequester spending cuts or to greet the Affordable Care Act with flowers and sweets.

“Are they really willing to hurt people just to score political points? I hope not,” Mr. Obama said, transparently suggesting that they do want to hurt people. At least he didn’t accuse them of using chemical weapons, but when it comes to stopping atrocities like opposition to his domestic agenda, let him be clear: He doesn’t do pinpricks….